Snow, apple pie, and The Haunting

A quieter day as winter is settling in. We had a dusting of snow overnight. No shoveling was required, though I did use the broom to sweep off the front patio and the short sections of sidewalk I have.

The weather service claimed we had 1.5 inches of snow over night. Now their claim of 3.2 inches the previous day seemed low, and now the 1.5 inches seems high. No way did I have half as much snow overnight as the previous night.

Otherwise I spent much of the day indoors. Kept the wood stove going and baked another apple pie.

When getting my mail I rode my bicycle carefully up and down the road a short distance on the slippery snow covered road. Bob and Jan were outside and I learned the snow from the snowplow yesterday knocked their mailbox off its post. They had a thick sturdy plastic mailbox and post so it was a little surprising that this happened.

I forgot to check if the snow pile around my mailbox post had hardened. Today was not as nice as yesterday as we didn't see as much sun and the temperature only reached 28 F. This is supposed to be as warm as it gets for a while.


I watched an old movie tonight. "The Haunting". This is a black & white horror/thriller movie from 1963.

"Dr. Markway, doing research to prove the existence of ghosts, investigates Hill House, a large, eerie mansion with a lurid history of violent death and insanity. With him are the skeptical young Luke, who stands to inherit the house, the mysterious and clairvoyant Theodora and the insecure Eleanor, whose psychic abilities make her feel somehow attuned to whatever spirits inhabit the old mansion. As time goes by it becomes obvious that they have gotten more than they bargained for as the ghostly presence in the house manifests itself in horrific and deadly ways."

Theodora: "Haven't you noticed how nothing in this house seems to move until you look away and then you just... catch something out of the corner of your eye?"

Normally I don't care for horror movies as I don't care for the blood and gore. A few horror movies are more a psychological horror movie, and encourage you to use your imagination, and this is one of them. As the movie goes on you wonder if the events are real or in Eleanor's mind. Modern audiences accustomed to today's gorefests and special effects probably will be bored by the movie as it conveys the horror through lighting, shadows, sound, camera angles, the odd and creepy house, and the character's reactions. I think it works. I enjoyed the movie.

Also interesting was the character subplot where Luke liked Theodora, who liked Eleanor, who liked Dr. Markway, who had a wife who showed up later in the movie to drive the story forward. These interactions were understated and did not overshadow the haunted house spookiness. But one could pick up on the characters' interests towards one another from the dialogue; and once the characters realized who-liked-who in the movie their actions towards one another changed slightly.

From what I read online the remake in 1999 was bad.